BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:icalendar-ruby
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
X-WR-CALNAME:McGovern Institute Special Seminar with Rebecca Yang
X-WR-TIMEZONE:Eastern Time (US & Canada)
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20260908T001112Z
UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_50728063252041
DTSTART:20251020T160000Z
DTEND:20251020T170000Z
DESCRIPTION:Date: Monday\, October 20\, 2025\nTime: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm\nL
 ocation: Seminar Room 3189\n\nTitle: From Genes to Circuits: Spatial Learn
 ing and Decision Making In Fruit Flies\n\n \n\nAbstract:\nWe study how gen
 es and neural circuits control spatial learning and decision making in Dro
 sophila. How animals navigate spatial learning tasks in environments lacki
 ng visual landmarks remains poorly understood. We use a high-throughput sp
 atial learning task to investigate this question in Drosophila and found t
 hat Drosophila can simultaneously use self-generated olfactory cues and se
 lf-motion cues to learn a spatial goal under visually deprived conditions.
   We use Drosophila selection of egg laying site as a model to study how n
 atural genetic variations shape the value-based decision making. While lab
 oratory flies reject sucrose in favor of a plain substrate for laying eggs
 \, a wild-caught African strain accepts sucrose. We identified the genes\,
  neurons\, and circuit that underlie the strain differences in behavior\, 
 illustrating how subtle gene regulatory polymorphisms reshape neural compu
 tations to drive adaptive variation in decision-making.\n\n \n\nBio:\nRebe
 cca Yang is currently Associate Professor at Duke University in the Depart
 ment of Neurobiology. She obtained her PhD from Stanford University studyi
 ng mechanisms governing planar cell polarity in the Drosophila compound ey
 e. She conducted her postdoctoral training in UCSF\, where she used Drosop
 hila egg-laying site selection as a system to study simple decision-making
  processes. In her own lab\, she investigates how genes and circuits\, inc
 luding natural genetic variations\, control learning and decision making c
 ombining various high-throughput behavioral assays with transcriptomic\, o
 ptogenetic\, and in vivo imaging approaches.
GEO:42.362302;-71.091766
LOCATION:Building 46\, 3189
SUMMARY:McGovern Institute Special Seminar with Rebecca Yang
URL;VALUE=URI:https://calendar.mit.edu/event/mcgovern-institute-special-sem
 inar-with-rebecca-yang
CATEGORIES:Conferences/Seminars/Lectures
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR